James Comey

James Comey served as the director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017.

During his first few months in office, Trump repeatedly pestered Comey about the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, asking Comey at least four times to publicly announced that the FBI was not investigating Trump personally and urging Comey to drop the FBI’s investigation into Michael Flynn. On May 9, just days after Comey asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in money and personnel for the FBI’s Russia probe, Trump fired Comey. Although the White House initially claimed that Comey was fired for breaching protocol by publicly criticizing Hillary Clinton during the FBI’s investigation into her private email server, Trump’s subsequent comments indicated that he had likely fired Comey to impede the Russia investigation. (Photo credit: Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images)